It could have been any American citizen behind that wheel. Let's not pretend that only illegal immigrants drink and drive.

Suzette Hackney

IndyStar Opinion

Let me say this first: The deaths of Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and Uber driver Jeffrey Monroe are beyond tragic. Their lives were unjustly snatched from them, and I offer my deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.

Their untimely loss of life should not be politicized, but that's exactly what has happened.

Tuesday morning, President Trump took to Twitter to denounce the undocumented immigrant who police say killed Jackson and Monroe, and called on Democrats to "get tough" on border and immigration issues.

Five minutes later, Trump followed his inflammatory tweet with one that expressed sympathy for Jackson's family.

Priorities, right?

I'm surprised it took Trump so long to exploit Jackson's death. When the news broke Monday that Jackson and Monroe died at the hands of an alleged drunken driver who was in the country illegally, my first thought was "Oh, boy, Trump is going to love this."

Police say Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when he allegedly hit and killed Jackson, a 26-year-old Colts linebacker, and 54-year-old Monroe, Jackson's Uber driver, around 4 a.m. Sunday.

Orrego-Savala, from Guatemala, has been deported twice, first in 2007 and again in 2009 after arrests in San Francisco, according to a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officials say Orrego-Savala has a prior conviction in California for driving under the influence.

This case allows Trump to point his finger at dangerous undocumented individuals who come to America, those who he has referred to as "drug dealers, criminals, rapists." It's an opportunity for him to push his racist narrative that people from "shithole countries" are undeserving to be here.

I am not defending Orrego-Savala; his actions are indefensible. I don't want to see Orrego-Savala deported from America again — that's not punishment enough. I want to see him serve a lifelong sentence in one of America's prisons, if he is convicted.

But this was the action of one individual. It is irresponsible and unreasonable to taint the reputations and lives of the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants living here.

After all, it could have been an American citizen behind that wheel. Let's not pretend that only illegal immigrants drink and drive. And let's not pretend that some of you, your friends or your family members haven't driven while under the influence.

But Trump won't acknowledge those statistics. He's right that this was a preventable tragedy. All drunken driving accidents are preventable. But this tragedy has nothing to do with Orrego-Savala's ethnicity or the fact he was here illegally.

States have habitual offender laws for a reason. Orrego-Savala, like thousands of Americans who operate a vehicle while under the influence, clearly has a problem. A drunk is a drunk, be it one from Gary, Greenwood or Guatemala.

Still, it's easy to use Orrego-Savala as a poster child for why immigration doesn't work. Here's the thing, immigration doesn't work in its current form -- I don't think anybody could argue differently.

But this is a particularly critical time, with Congress trying to iron out realistic reforms for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other immigration policies. What is needed now is a balanced, thoughtful approach to establishing a fair path to citizenship.

But when Trump tweets, we get hate, deception and fear-mongering. The president of the United States is using the tragic deaths of Edwin Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe as a political prop.

As Trump might tweet, that is SAD.

Suzette Hackney is a columnist at the IndyStar, where this column first appeared.